Security Inventor and Organiser, the Engineer Heinrich Ehrhardt
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Rheinmetall company magazine Special 2014 anniversary issue he days of our years are three-score his reaction to the exhibits, the reporter noted chinery, and cameras (the “Exa” refl ex cam- years and ten (70)” according to the his “admiration for the inventive powers of a era) and even motors for mopeds. biblical psalm. Companies often don’t person who is a source of constant innovation In 1956, Röchlingsche Eisen- und Stahl- “ live much longer. Indeed, the average and never stops at what he has achieved but werke GmbH bought Rheinmetall without life expectancy of a business in West- keeps going.” Borsig. Rheinmetall once more started to pro- Tern Europe or the US is less than 20 years! A In those days, the company had around duce military equipment when the German scientifi c study published in the renowned Har- 6,000 employees and 200 offi cials. At the be- Bundeswehr was founded. The fi rst products vard Business Review in the late 1990s states ginning of World War I, Rheinmetall was the to leave the production line were guns, can- there are only few companies in the world that biggest arms company in the German Reich; nons and munitions that convinced custom- reach the age of 100 or more. To survive in a the workforce had risen to nearly 8,000. Due ers due to the outstanding quality. These were world of constant change with all its crises and to the war, this had increased to nearly 48,000 followed by cannon tubes and gun carriages extreme situations and reach the age of 125 employees of which 9,000 were women by the for armoured vehicles and artillery guns as calls not only for a very particular mindset end of the war in 1918. Wartime production well as tank destroyer guns, a standard tank and attitude of the management, work- consisted entirely of weapons and munitions turret (Leopard 1) and a self-propelled howit- force and shareholders, but also for manufacture. zer. Development of the 120mm smoothbore innovation strength and great fl ex- After the cessation of hostilities, demand technology got under way in 1965. In coopera- ibility. Although this principle is for military equipment practically collapsed tion, the best ever main battle tank (Leopard generally valid for all compa- from one day to the next; weapons and muni- 2) and two armoured infantry fi ghting vehicles nies, it is especially true for a tions were no longer needed and the produc- (Marder and Puma) were developed. Subse- German company and particu- tion of such military equipment was banned by quently, the Boxer armoured fi ghting vehicle larly one like Rheinmetall that the victorious allies. This led to collective re- was developed in collaboration with the Dutch has had to overcome many dif- dundancies with serious social consequences. tank manufacturer Storck who was acquired at fi cult challenges since fi rst be- Only 30 years after being founded, the compa- a later stage. ing founded and whose exist- ny was threatened with extinction. Yet the core The cooperation with other companies that ence was often at risk or called workforce that remained and/or had returned partly led to the creation of joint ventures or into question. Rheinmetall has after the war was not willing to give up. Indeed, acquisitions was partly driven by increasingly long since overcome such diffi cul- they concentrated on what they were best at stringent requirements imposed on modern ties – it is not only one of the oldest – and partly better than others. Quality steel weapon systems. However, these develop- corporations in Germany but is also one was produced in factories with high-precision ments were mainly due to the budgetary of the very few companies that was estab- machines and staff who knew how to operate constraints of NATO and EU member states lished as a stock corporation from the outset. the machines. So it was decided to take the and the tight restrictions on arms exports. In The company’s eventful history is closely asso- risk and start producing locomotives, steam 1999, the defence systems capabilities of the ciated with political and social developments ploughs, type- Rheinmetall in Germany. Rheinmetall is aware of its history, writers and group including the darkest chapters of the past. were Although not directly involved in the es- tablishment of the company, Rheinische Met- allwaaren- und Maschinenfabrik was soon perceived as the company of the ingenious Security inventor and organiser, the engineer Heinrich Ehrhardt. Like so many other successful Düs- seldorf businessmen, Ehrhardt had his origins past and elsewhere. The beginnings were diffi cult; after and all, it was necessary to succeed on a market Mobility present that was dominated – in Germany and the rest of Europe – by the undisputed “king of the cannon” Krupp. Ehrhardt’s quick and lasting success was ultimately attributable to two of his early inventions. Our raison d’être One of his inventions was the extrusion and drawing process to manufacture seamless calculation machines. From the mid 1920’s on- streamlined and organisationally concen- steel tubes. Unlike the Mannesmann tubes, wards, the German Reich held a majority stake trated under the roof of the newly founded Ehrhardt’s tubes were ideally suited as gun in Rheinmetall AG. Rheinmetall DeTec AG (Defence Technologies). tubes and cartridge cases. The Rheinmetall In 1936 the former locomotive factory Borsig In 2004, around 75 institutional investors ac- trademark that was still valid ten years ago (already acquired by Rheinmetall in 1933) and quired the Rheinmetall shares previously held and consisted of a square in a circle stands Rheinmetall merged to form Rheinmetall-Bor- by the Röchling group. for the steel block in the pressing mould and sig AG. Ultimately, all stakes in the company Rheinmetall’s non-military activities have thus for the extrusion process that has hardly were acquired by the government and integrat- consistently expanded since the early 1980’s. changed to this very day. The second invention ed in the Hermann Göring works. From then Not all new acquisitions turned out to be suc- that brought the company its breakthrough on on, production once again concentrated on cessful in establishing a second and possi- the market was the barrel recoil cannon fi t for military equipment, and not many resources bly third cornerstone for business alongside fi eld service. Since it was diffi cult to obtain the were left to continue the peacetime production the defence activity. Ultimately, the executive necessary steel qualities and machine tools, started after World War I. After large numbers board opted for a two-pillar strategy with the these cannons were self-manufactured which of the workforce had been conscripted – like in corporate sectors Automotive and Defence. Au- also helped maintain the technological edge World War I – the company was forced to use tomotive consists of the two formerly independ- on competitors. female employees and then foreign workers, ent specialists Pierburg and Kolbenschmidt At the 1902 industrial exhibition in Düs- prisoners of war and even prisoners from con- that were merged to create KSPG. The repeated seldorf, the “Ehrhardtschen Unternehmen” centration camps. attempt to fl oat the automotive business on the (Ehrhardt enterprises) as they were called in The outcome of the pseudo prosperity was stock market was abandoned. In the end, this the offi cial document, presented their prod- devastating and once more left the company decision transpired to be the best option since ucts in a separate impressive hall. Alongside with an uncertain future. The production fa- the two-pillar strategy has proven successful: many machines, the exhibits displayed an ap- cilities were largely destroyed, the plants in for example, the weak development in the De- proach that correlates closely with the “two Central Germany were confi scated and largely fence sector is currently being compensated by pillar strategy” of the company, namely Secu- disassembled; those in Western Germany profi ts from the Automotive sector. rity and Mobility and Defence and Automotive. were placed under the control of the Allies. Rheinmetall repeatedly had to master diffi - “The display of military equipment showed Production activities were prohibited, only to cult situations that threatened its survival and that the factory (Rheinmetall) had focussed be taken up again fi ve years later. However, has now reinforced its position for the foresee- most effectively on the design of cannons the portfolio was changed once again. In Düs- able future thanks to its two pillar strategy and for fi eld service, meeting the requirements of seldorf, typewriters, shock absorbers, lifts the production/product focus on two main ar- weapons technology and simultaneously pro- and tanning machines as well as transport and eas of our lives that were already successful viding the necessary mobility.” At the time, conveyance facilities were manufactured with 125 years ago: Security and Mobility. mobility was understood to mean wheels, limited success. The independent subsidiary Prof. Dr. Horst A. Wessel* axles, crankshafts and connecting rods as Borsig in Berlin built steam generators and * Professor for economic history with a main focus on com- pany history at the Heinrich-Heine University of Düsseldorf; for well as bicycles, motorbikes and motorised calcifi cation systems. The nationalised factory many years head of the Mannesmann Archives and Chairman of tricycles and even complete cars. Describing in Thuringia likewise manufactured offi ce ma- the Düsseldorf history society. RHEINISCHE METALLWAAREN- UND MASCHINENFABRIK 1 9 1 8 – Procurement practice in the days of the German Emperor 1889 he autobiographic notes of Heinrich Ehrhardt are full Turkish of anecdotes about Rheinmetall in the pre-war era. T One of the many stories to be found relates to the Su- pervisory Board member of Rheinische Metallwaaren- und Maschinenfabrik, Major General z.D.